Official Secrets

First Hit: I really enjoyed this film not only because of the exceptional acting but also because I learned about this brave individual.

Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley) worked for the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) as part of British Intelligence. Her mandarin language translation skills from living all around Asia as a child, helped the agency translate tapped intercepted telephone conversations and write reports about them. Her job was to help prevent terrorist activities and attacks in Britain.

One day she receives an email with an attached memo stating that the United States and Britain were going to coerce votes from small United Nations members to influence the support for invading Iraq. George Bush and his team of people wanted to invade Iraq after 9-11, and he wanted to do it legally with United Nations support. Manufacturing evidence (WMDs) and using this coercion of small nations, they would get UN approval to bomb the hell out of Iraq. Bush wanted to prove that the US was doing something about the 9-11 attack and he felt his father the senior Bush didn’t do enough when they’d previously invaded Iraq.

The attached memo was seen by Gun as collusion between England and the US to enter this war illegally. With a deep sense of purpose to stop this illegal action and from the potential deaths of fellow Englishmen, US soldiers and possibly thousands of Iraqi citizens, she prints a copy of the memo and gives this copy to a friend who will give it to the press. Three weeks go by, and it isn’t published, but finally Martin Bright (Matt Smith) of The Observer decides, after doing their due diligence, to release the memo in full and all hell breaks loose.

Scotland Yard starts their investigation at GCHQ and shortly after the interviews begin, Katharine admits she leaked the memo in violation of the Official Secrets Act. After threatening and harassing her and her husband Yasar (Adam Bakri), even arresting him and attempt to deport him, eight months later the government decides to formally charge Gun.

Obtaining Ben Emerson (Ralph Fiennes) a volunteer lawyer, through a public legal group, they decide to take on the government. By investigating authorized personnel in the government that had initially told Prime Minister Tony Blair that his actions would be illegal, they decided to fight the case. Because it is public knowledge, I’ll share that the government exonerated Gun from the crimes she committed even though she confessed to leaking the document.

This was a great story and one I knew nothing about until seeing this film.

Knightley is fantastic as Gun. Her ability to be fragile, scared, and brave, all at once is perfect for this film. Great casting call. Smith, as Bright was excellent. His drive to publish the article was strong. His look when someone on their staff used “spellcheck” on his story and changed the spelling of key words was perfect. Bakri as Gun’s husband was wonderful. His caring support of Katharine felt genuine. Fiennes was excellent as Gun’s lawyer, and the scene at the end of the film when he asks his friend to leave the spot where he’s fishing is pointed about how things have to change. Rhys Ifans was fabulous as US investigative reporter Ed Vulliamy. His outrageous drive helped to secure the information needed to validate the information in the leaked memo. Everyone in this film was good and, of course, seeing the real Katharine Gun in film footage was perfect. Gregory Bernstein, Sara Bernstein, and Gavin Hood did a fantastic job of creating a compelling screenplay. Hood got terrific performances from the entire crew and actors.

Overall: This film is a potent reminder that we have to live our truth and be willing to stand up for what is right.

Aquarela

First Hit: One of the most cinematographically influential films I’ve ever seen.

This exquisitely shot film is about water, water in various forms of power and beauty.

The beginning is both puzzling and amusing at times. We watch as men walk around on frozen water, stooping down, and pressing their head against the ice. They are looking for something.

What could they be looking for? Sealife? A human body? No, they are looking for cars or trucks. We watch as they painstakingly find one, create a big hole in the ice, and using the primitive, yet ever practical, pulley and lever system of moving heavy objects, bring the vehicle up from underneath the ice.

I never really figured out if this was a wide river, part of a bay in the ocean, or a lake, but in the end, it didn’t matter. These inhabitants of a far northern unnamed country drive across the ice for many months of the year, and now that there is global warming, the ice is giving way three weeks earlier than usual, and vehicles are breaking through the ice and sinking into the water. The camera shows this happening several times and it both astonishing and amusing to watch.

At one point we watch this happen, and the camera catches one of the bloodied escaping survivors climbing on to the ice surface and then panicked, we see him trying to find his passenger. Everyone is looking for him, and when they see his body through the ice and they start chipping away to save him.

The film transitions to seeing glaciers, then glaciers calving into the ocean. Later, calving underwater resulting in icebergs rising to the top of the water and spinning in the water as they find the balance point. The noise of the calving glaciers is eerily breaking the silence of the film and sets an ominous tone. The shots of these calving events are extraordinary. I felt right there.

Then we’re on a sailing craft heading through rough seas, and then really rough and vast seas. The two sailors are alone in the dark battling rolling waves that are easily 30 – 40 feet. The boat slamming into the crevasse and then the rise of each wave creates spray off the bow that covers the entire ship. I would not want to be on that boat.

Then ocean waves in a dark arctic storm rolling across the ocean. They are easily 50 – 60 feet. This sequence uses loud heavy metal as background music, and for me, just too much and too loud, and I understood why it was used. These scenes are some of the darkest most potent visions of water on this planet.

We then segue to hurricane shots in Florida, then water overrunning Oroville Dam in California, and end up at Angel Falls in Venezuela, the highest waterfall in the world.

In between all this, there are other shots of water that are equally powerful and at times elegant in their serene beauty.

I cannot imagine the patience and fortitude it took to capture all this water, in this way, on film. These were some of the most amazingly sublime shots I’ve ever seen – in any movie.

Viktor Kossakovsky wrote and directed this, and all I can say is, “wow, what vision.”

Overall: Outside of some of the music choices, this film stands heads above most documentary films about the nature of our planet.

Don't Let Go

First Hit: Visually well crafted and ambitious in concept, ultimately it didn’t quite satisfy.

Films that mess with time (jump time), like “Memento” and “Frequency” have had their ways to jump time and create an engaging story. “Don’t Let Go” does this and then some.

In this story, the deep trusting relationship between a Policeman Jack Radcliff (David Oyelowo) and his niece Ashley (Storm Reed), is put to the test when Ashley, her father (and Jack’s brother) Garret (Brian Tyree Henry), and mother Susan (Shinelle Azoroh) are brutally murdered, or are involved in a murder-suicide.

The film does a great job of showing how close Jack and Ashley are through multiple telephone calls and one on one discussions. He does this because his brother has had a checkered past, and he wants the best for Ashley.

Jack gets a disturbing and interrupting call from Ashley that ends in a hang-up. He drives over to his brother’s home and finds them all murdered. Shocked, he thinks that this could be the result of Garret’s re-involvement in illegal drugs, with the intent to distribute.

Despondent, he’s in shock during the funeral which is then followed by scenes of him sitting at home, at a loss for why this happened.  Shortly after that, he gets a call from Ashley’s phone and the voice on the other end is definitely Ashley, although it is more scratchy sounding than usual. She hangs up. He calls back and gets a message that this number is no longer in use. Shocked he checks the police crime scene file boxes and doesn’t find her phone. Breaking into his brother’s murder scene sealed home, he finds the phone in the tub. It is broken and doesn’t work.

He then gets another call from Ashley from her number, and he begins to talk with her while trying to grapple with how this can be because he’s buried Ashley and yet she’s calling him.

Eventually, he determines that she’s calling him from the past and by slowly accepting that if he can change Ashley’s past actions, just before the murderous event, he is hoping to help her shift her future and his future as well, the one he’s already lived through.

That’s what this film attempts to do, have the audience believe this possible and improbably story of past and future existing at the same time. The work to make this film believable is all up to the acting of Oyelowo because he’s trying to live in three different time frames all at the same time. In doing so, he must juggle and make the audience believe the various versions and scenarios of the story. In two of them he gets shot. One he gets shot by a drive-by shooting. In another he gets shot twice, once in a warehouse and then by a fellow officer. These wounds bring him to the edge of death but also make him figure out who his brother’s murderer is and who might be corrupt in the police department. Ultimately, he’s able to help Ashley stay alive and conversely it allows him to live.

This is a complex film, and I thought the sets and scenes were well designed. The alleyways, buildings, and street scenes were not overpowering, but they brought the right tone and reality to this mystery.

Oyelowo does an outstanding job of creating belief. Less of an actor would have made this film a mess and unbelievable. He was able to use his protective love for Ashley in a most effective way. The whole restaurant gum scene was beautiful. Reed shows again (“A Wrinkle in Time” among her credits) what a wonderful actor she is becoming. Again, watch the restaurant gum scene, she’s magnificent in it. Mykelti Williamson, as fellow police officer and friend Bobby, was excellent as a trusted friend and eventually an antagonist. Jacob Estes wrote and directed this complex and challenging movie. At times, I felt I needed different clarifying touchpoints, but it was well done.

Overall: Although I really liked the components, I still don’t feel that the film finished as well as it could have.

After the Wedding

First Hit: In this film, a challenging and complex situation unfolds through fantastic acting.

Isabel (Michelle Williams) is the co-founder of an orphanage in India. She very fond of the school, children, and organization. She is especially attached to a young boy Jai (Vir Pachisia) who appears to be a bit hyper and possibly having some attention disorder. This is wonderfully portrayed when Isabel, leading a meditation of the orphanage’s children, opens her eyes to see Jai lying on his back looking at the sky and waving his hands around. She lies down next to him and then says he can ring the bell to end the mediation. He is very enthusiastic ringing the bell and because the other children affectionately laugh, we know he is loved by them – he’s not an outsider.

The story then moves to New York where we find Oscar (Billy Crudup) finalizing a sculpture exhibit of his work, while his wife Theresa (Julianne Moore) is hard at work, making decisions, speaking with lawyers, and appears to be finalizing a deal to sell her large media company.

They have a daughter named Grace (Abby Quinn) who is young and with an impending wedding is nervous.

Reluctantly Isabel goes to New York because she’s been asked by a benefactor to come to New York to meet them in person to obtain a substantive amount of money to support her orphanage. When she gets to New York, we (and Isabel) finds out that Theresa is the benefactor. Their first meeting is slightly contentious because Isabel doesn’t think she needs to be in New York and Theresa seems a bit non-committal. To learn more about Isabel, Theresa invites Isabel to Grace’s wedding at their home.

Arriving at the wedding slightly late, Isabel is shocked to see that the father of the bride is Oscar, someone she had a previous history with.

The audience is getting some inkling that something is up and when Oscar gives a toast talking about how Grace helped him select Theresa as his wife.

But was this set up? Did Theresa know what she was doing when she brought Isabel to New York? Does Grace really know her history? How will Oscar explain to Grace’s past to her? Why did Theresa set this all up?

Lots of questions and the excellent acting make this complicated situation come together rather well.

Williams was excellent although there seemed to be darkness around her through the entire film. Part of me felt as though this was because of a decision she made many years ago or was Isabel’s character a bit sad, cynical and dark unless she was around the orphanage? Moore was solid as the highly motivated media company owner. She’s always on the phone, pushing through her agenda. There’s a sense of something underlying her drive to sell the business. Crudup is outstanding as Theresa’s husband and Grace’s father. There are a creative strength and vulnerability he shows that makes his character work. Quinn is good as Grace. She’s a little whiny about her nervousness of getting married, and I’m not sure why this was needed. Pachisia is perfect as the young orphan, to whom, Isabel is emotionally connected. Susanne Bier, Bart Freundlich, and Anders Thomas Jensen wrote the screenplay. It is an interesting story, and for me, because I adopted my daughter, I felt a deep connection to the story. Freundlich also directed his story. I liked many of the sets; specifically the hotel and office spaces.

Overall: I thought this was an extremely well-acted story.

Angel Has Fallen

First Hit: Highly implausible, slightly boring at times, but there were a couple of touching scenes.

The film begins with Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) moving through rooms in a building shooting and being shot at. It looks and feels real. Then he gets captured, and we discover it is a training exercise at Wade Jennings’ (Danny Huston) new combat training facility.

Wade and Mike talk, and we learn that they are old combat friends. Their lives’ have diverged with Wade setting up this large facility hoping to obtain government contracts to train people and participate in wars for the USA. Mike is a Secret Service Agent, married, with a young daughter, and in line to become a Director.

Mike is shown taking pills to alleviate headaches and other body pains, a result from his past work. As a long-standing Secret Service Agent, he works closely with President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), and during a fishing excursion, the President and all the Secret Service Agents are attacked by a fleet of tiny drones.

The drones kill everyone except Mike and The President because they dive into the water. The audience knows who sent the drones, and it takes very little time for the audience to figure out who is behind the perpetrator’s scheme.

The film attempts to make this story interesting by having the FBI determine that Mike set up the presidential assassination, so they are after him. Having been rescued with the President after the attempt, they lock him up, but of course he escapes their custody. However, relying on this worn storyline, and knowing this isn’t true, there is no suspense in this film, and it now must rely solely on the action being good enough to keep the audience engaged.

For me, it didn’t. It was too predictable, not very inventive, and the film felt like it was trying to be good, but it didn’t flow smoothly or interestingly.

The best parts were when Mike found and engaged with his long-lost father, Clay (Nick Nolte). Clay is a very crusty Vietnam veteran living entirely off the grid deep in a forest area of Virginia. When Wade’s agents, who are looking to kill Mike, come to assassinate them on Clay’s land, Clay’s skills as a mercenary are a hoot to watch in action.

Teaming up, Clay and Mike head out from Clay’s cabin and try to find out who’s behind the assassination attempt and to save The President because someone clearly wants him dead.

When Clay shows up at Mike’s home and surprises his wife Leah (Piper Perabo), the scene is both touching and funny.

Everyone knows how the film ends, and although The President spends most of the time in a coma, his last two scenes, one with Mike and one with his Vice President Kirby (Tim Blake Nelson) make up for some of the film’s failings.

Butler was satisfactory in this role as Banning. Given the prognosis from doctors about his physical condition, I sincerely doubt that he would have been able to live through the action he was involved in. But that is movie life, they set up the impossible, but he succeeds. Nolte was a hoot. The Butler remark that he could be mistaken for the Unabomber was perfect. Nolte does a superlative crusty mean. Perabo had a small role, but her sincerity and nature were terrific. The film might be better served if she were more integral to the story. Freeman was his calm intelligent self and always makes a good president, or God. Huston was excellent as the “lion” who wanted to live a life of a lion and fight to the end. Nelson as VP was too easy to see through, from the get-go. Robert Mark Kamen and Matt Cook wrote the screenplay. The issue with it is that it used worn-out ideas in an old concept. There was nothing refreshingly new here except using small drones, in a swarm, to make an assassination attempt. Ric Roman Waugh has a mediocre script to work with, but many scenes seemed to take too long and had little value.

Overall: Just wasn’t exciting enough to keep me engaged.